When planning a recent international trip with my daughter, I was faced with a first-world problem: should I download a season of "My Little Pony" to the Amazon Kindle Fire for her to watch on the ten-hour flight or opt for iTunes, then buy and synch to an iPod?

Online video advertising is a powerful tool to boost the reach and effectiveness of a TV campaign, according to a comScore report on cross-media marketing. If an advertiser allocates 90% of a campaign to TV and 10% to digital video, that mix can increase the reach by 5 percentage points and the effectiveness by 16 percentage points, comScore said.

Mobile is both its own beast and an increasingly important venue for video. You've seen all the reports on mobile video viewing increasing. Much of that increase comes from a growth in complementary TV viewing -- either in looking up videos related to TV content, or tuning into TV shows or clips. But the mobile viewing experience isn't always pleasant for consumers.

Consumer packaged goods are the biggest advertisers in online video, regularly accounting for about one-quarter to one-third of online video ad spend. But does the money actually work? Are consumers going to stores and buying more toothpaste, soap, cereal and so on?

Targeting is vital to the success of most Internet marketing campaigns. But marketers need to make sure they are targeting not just by demo, or age, or sex, or "intent to purchase." Daypart targeting is also a necessity in online video buys, especially given the growth in mobile consumption of video because mobile video habits fluctuate greatly throughout the day.

Have you heard branded video is the next big thing? Well, it is, and that's why we're seeing a new wave of offerings from online video technology providers as they fine-tune their products in this area.

One of the newest business case uses of video is for recruiting and job interviewing. With tech startups like Ovia and enRecruit offering technological platforms for companies to implement video pre-screening of applicants, on-camera skills are going to be even more vital for -- well -- anyone. And not being good on camera won't cut it as an excuse. You don't need to be model gorgeous or talk like a news anchor, but there are a few things anyone can do better on video to improve the quality. Here they are.

Here's how you make a good branded video: find a dog theme. Or cats, because cats and dogs are cool. But dogs in sunglasses are particularly cool. Dogs wearing sunglasses while shot in slo-mo are the coolest. Look, it's not rocket science. People just like pets. So rather than put its models in shades, Diesel placed its eyewear on pooches in its newest campaign.

Internet video will play a major role in the quadrupling of the Internet over the next four years. That traffic growth from 2011 to 2016, according to Cisco's latest report, will be driven by a proliferation in devices. Cisco projects that by 2016 the number of network connections will reach nearly 19 billion -- up from 10 billion last year, due to the growth in tablets, mobile phones and other smart devices.

Sure, video viewers are watching more TV shows, movies and other long-form content via broadband video -- but which devices are getting the most action? The answer: gaming consoles and connected TVs, said Ooyala in its recently released report on first-quarter viewing habits. That includes over-the-top devices like Boxee, Roku and Google TV.